Volume 3, Chapter 3, The Ohio Lands, The Proclamation Line of 1763
With the French and Indian War completely over, and the northern American continent east
of the Mississippi subdued by 1763, the English government faced more insistently the problem
of what to do with the western lands. Until now, or at least until the temporary edict
of 1761, Virgin Land had been open to settlement on various terms and in various relationships
to the Indian tribes. But now the British government began to prepare what would be
a rude shock to the American colonists. On June 8, 1763, Lord Shelburne, powerful protege
Lord Shelburne, powerful protege of the Earl of Bute and the Duke of Bedford and President
of the Board of Trade, recommended that the newly conquered land be divided into three
new colonies, East Florida, West Florida and Canada.
Simultaneously, the vast remaining lands of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys were to be
It is incorrect to imply, as many historians have done, that this measure was designed
merely to quiet the Indians temporarily in the face of Pontiac's rebellion.
The Board of Trade's proposal was made months before the Indian Rebellion had become known
in England. To be sure, the rebellion hastened the English decision, and the Board now urged
an immediate proclamation reserving to the Indians all territory west of the Appalachians
and ousting all white settlers from the western lands.
The King issued a proclamation to this effect on October 7. It established East Florida
westward to the Apalachicola River, West Florida in the southwest from the Apalachicola to
the Mississippi and Quebec in what was formerly French Canada. Cape Breton Island was added
to Nova Scotia and the region south of the Altamaha River to Georgia. Most important,
The Proclamation barred any white settlement, present or future, in the lands west of the
Appalachians, and placed its government under the military commander-in-chief. Even voluntary
purchase of land from the Indians was outlawed. The Proclamation also decreed that Indian
lands within the bounds of the seaboard colonies must be voluntarily purchased from the Indians
in Public Transactions. What was the reason for this astounding British policy, which
stunned and deeply angered the American colonist? We have seen one grave flaw in the theory
that this was only a temporary way to appease the rebellious Indians. Another flaw is that
the proclamation line continued in force long after Pontiac's rebellion had been quelled.
The Board of Trade later proclaimed its aim to be the altruistic one of protecting and
safeguarding the Indians, and many historians have naively fallen for this myth. But surely
the contemptuous attitude of the British then, and in the past toward the Indians, is enough
to discredit the idea of a sudden burst of enlightened altruism toward the red man? Far
Far more convincing are two motives attributed to the Crown, both economic, a, a general
desire to keep the Americans confined to the seaboard to continue to provide markets for
English manufacturers, and b, a bowing to the pressure of the powerful English fur lobby,
which was desirous of keeping the West free of settlers and therefore confined to the fur trade.
On the first point, the British were apprehensive that Americans in the interior would begin
to make their own clothes and other goods in their households rather than buy English
textiles so that valuable English markets would be lost.
This motive for outlawing further settlement was privately admitted by various key British
of the British officials, including John Pownall, Secretary of the Board of Trade.
For its part, the fur lobby had powerful connections in the English government. Particularly important
for the American fur trade was David Franks of Philadelphia, who was connected with John
Watts and James Delancey in the Albany fur trade. The crucial London connection of Franks
A memorandum by Lord Shelburne's secretary, Maurice Morgan, declared the need to confine
to the Eastern Seaboard in order to preserve the West as a source of furs, and to keep it as open and wild as possible for the purposes of hunting.
Thus the fur lobby was able to triumph over the interest of the settlers, as well as over the separate interest of the various speculative land companies,
to defy Crown policy and quietly moved to settle west of the Proclamation Line.
The British military succeeded in obtaining orders from Pennsylvania and Virginia to desist from settlement,
but these laws and edicts could not be enforced.
If the speculators in western lands were thwarted by the Proclamation Line,
the reverse was true for speculators in lands east of the Appalachians,
which were now the only lands open to New Settlement. A boom occurred in Nova Scotia
on lands seized from the unfortunate Acadians. Benjamin Franklin picked up 100,000 acres
there in Pennsylvania and in Florida. Indeed, many highly important interests in England
had speculated heavily in Florida lands. Interests that included the Prime Minister George Grenville
This speculation undoubtedly strengthened their resolve during the war to seize North America rather than the Sugar Islands of the West Indies.